Thread: Leaving Fish On the Deck (continued)

Originally Posted by ironman172

Bring you own cutting board...... I do mine on the concrete/ wood deck.....slice the sides off the spanish and finish taking the meat off the skin at the condo....sometimes I do that at the pier too.....but a cutting board takes up very little space on a cart

You talked me into it. That's what I'm going to do.

I carry a bleach solution in a spray bottle and a scrub brush. My main problem is what is under the big cutting board and that ugly drain area that has moss growing in it. I have taken to mostly bringing my fillets home, too. The cats love the trimmings. I used to bring my own cutting board, and still have a nice one made of poplar, and I may start bringing it again. Those tables really need to be completely redesigned and simplified. The best cleaning station is the one over on the east side by the garbage can where you have to stretch out the hose to get to it.

I so appreciate the cleaning station, but between people cleaning their fish there, maybe (maybe not) rinsing/sanitizing the surface AND the specter of bird-poop, it's impossible for the filleting surface to stay clean/sanitary. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who recognizes this challenge.

I may be the bastard here I love to catch but can't eat. But I don't seam to have a problem giving them away. And I love the company of others who do.

Originally Posted by coach

I may be the bastard here I love to catch but can't eat. But I don't seam to have a problem giving them away. And I love the company of others who do.

You don't owe anyone an apology for that. I hunt a property in Tennessee that is overrun with does and are causing a lot of crop damage. I take way more than I can eat but there are lots of people who jump at the chance to get meat for their families. I have never seen anyone catch a "desirable" fish on the pier and no one want it.

I used the station last week and didn't even think about the nastiness of the surface until I read this. We ate our fish Saturday night and survived. That being said, next time I am bring one of those flexible cutting boards and sticking it in my chest. By flexible, I mean the ones that are maybe an 1/8' thick - not sure what they are made of.
Its a shame there's not a design to where you can rinse off the table and the little scraps get rinsed overboard.

Originally Posted by Fish Head

I used the station last week and didn't even think about the nastiness of the surface until I read this. We ate our fish Saturday night and survived. That being said, next time I am bring one of those flexible cutting boards and sticking it in my chest. By flexible, I mean the ones that are maybe an 1/8' thick - not sure what they are made of.
Its a shame there's not a design to where you can rinse off the table and the little scraps get rinsed overboard.

That is the way it is designed but the littles scraps and big redfish scales clog the drain holes and small drain pipe. I usually force water through them several times when I'm cleaning fish to keep it open. Sunlight and the chlorine residual in the supply water do a limited amount of disinfecting along with removal by the pressure of the water. MOST of the fish I clean stay skin side down and there is very little contact with the cutting board. I rinse every filet with water before bagging and then fill the bags with water and drain before putting them in the cooler. If I were cleaning it for sashimi or sushi I would take it back to the condo to clean it. Cooking it will kill anything biological that might have hitched a ride home with it. I don't remember ever leaving without cleaning the station I was using and MOST people do likewise.

Mark, I wish more folks did it the way you (and I) do it, but there is still a significant percentage who think their mother works there and will come along behind and clean up after them. She doesn't.

I really don't have a problem scrubbing the surface where I'm working, but underneath that big cutting board is a ton of crap that gets washed under and never gets flushed out. There are probably bacteria the size of lizards growing under there. The drain area at the back of the tables is terribly inefficient and allows stagnant water to pool there in the heat and we can expect mutant organisms to begin attacking tourists any day now. Green crap is growing there as we speak and needs to be scrubbed out---I'd do it, but then I'd have to buy a new scrub brush.

However, I consider all this to be an "inconvenience" rather than a "problem." A "problem" would have a name and tear up the pier. We can work together to overcome the "inconvenience".

As far as fish care, i keep it simple, small ones straight to the cooler, big ones cleaned and bagged immediately, but there are a few exceptions, i keep and eat jacks and bobos, but i bleed them out first, i find the nearest out of the way spot to do so and prop them up tail down with tail cut/broken, then rinse the spot off with nearest hose after, as for the cleaning tables, i've never really worried about them, if they are really nasty i have a rag to scrub them a bit, other wise a quick rinse of the hose and then rinse of the fillets before bagging, between freezing and cooking i've never had anybody get sick

Well said Mr. WIRE!!!

I wish everyone treated the pier as some of you. I've only been here for 5 or 6 years now but i've noticed alot of wear and tear and things caused by people that simply don't care, but at the same time, i've noticed (in my experiene) the pier is cleaner, there seems to be less bait mess and trash lying around. I attribute that to most of you taking to time to pick up after the ones that don't give a flip...